First round of 2020 wasn't bad. Played Poston Butte. I was cold topping on the range 15 min before our tee time and was freaking out, but actually hit it pretty well on the course. My chipping and putting suck! I must have three jacked five times, but snuck in enough pars and one birdie to shoot a 78. Off to gold canyon for 36 today.

This post is completely wrong. The Royal is private. Conditions are usually good but the greens are super slow. Katke is usually in very good shape and has transitioned into a solid track. However it is owned by the university so there is no booze.

3JP, if you PM me I can help get you on at the Royal and can probably help with rates at Tullymore/St Ives. My member rates are pretty good. Especially after 3.

Thanks, J. We ended up cancelling the reservation, and just last night booked a place near West Branch (close to Lake St. Helen). I think we’re going to do The Quest, Dream/Nightmare, and The Fortress in Frankenmuth on the way home. I’ve never played the last 3 of those, and it’s a pretty budget-friendly trip overall.

They've put up the schedule on the website now. No info on qualifying sites yet for the Michigan Am or GAM Championship, but the rest of the tournament schedule is listed. Mid Am is going to be Hills and Moor this year.

GAM should re-name themselves the Southeast Michigan Golf Association. Or the Metro D golf association. 1 qualifier north of Flint/Lansing, and other than the Mid Am there won't be a single tournament north of US10! 7 years as a member of Florida State Golf Association and GAM, FSGA does it better every time.

Well, 2 Michigan Am qualifiers, and I don't think the GAM champ list is complete yet (the Michigan Am one may not be, either). I know they usually have a qualifier at Michaywe for the GAM, and I don't see that on the list yet. The Michigan Am is at the Heather this year and the Senior Championship is at Belvedere, so it's not quite that bad, but I agree that it would be nice if they spread out a little bit so people don't have to travel so far for qualifiers. Marquette and Harbor Springs/Petoskey are still quite a hike for people who live "up north" but outside of the cities on the Northwest shore. It seems like it would make sense to have something in the West Branch/Clare area and maybe Gaylord/Grayling and/or in the Northeast part of the LP. From what I've seen, they don't usually get big fields for qualifiers up there, but part of that might be how much travel is involved to the sites they're picking.

You definitely have a point about the qualifiers -- they don't make it easy for people outside of downstate to participate.

In general, I think they do a pretty good job of picking sites for the Am, and it moves pretty well around the state. This will be the 3rd time it's been played at the Heather since I started trying to qualify for GAM events (in 2006), and it was at Belvedere once in that time, too. 4 out of 14 years seems pretty reasonable, especially considering it's been in the GR/Kzoo/Muskegon/Lansing area other years, along with a few times around Detroit. The GAM Championship really does not seem to leave SE Michigan very often, which I don't really understand.

Take a look at qualifier participation. Or don't because it looks like it got nuked haha. But i don't remember more than one maybe two spots being awarded at Michawye because of a lack of entrants. The net stuff I can see getting a few more but think about how many you'd lose in SE MI by having it somewhere up north. I'm not sure I will play an AM qualifier this year because of where its at and I've yet to play in the mid am solely because its a vacation and not something I can commute to on a daily basis.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the updated site. They killed off all the old qualifier results, and navigation of the site as a whole seems a lot less intuitive than it used to be, especially for Tournament info. I'm not suggesting getting rid of qualifiers downstate, but with the Am qualifiers as an example this year, If you live in the North East part of the LP, you're looking at about a 4 hour round trip to play at the nearest qualifying site. Having something between Saginaw and Harbor Springs seems like it would be a good idea.

I always either try to qualify for the Am or GAM Championship, and this year I'm probably going to try for the Am. While it's a PITA to go up to Boyne, I'd be more interested in playing up there than at Western. Turning the Mid Am into a vacation many years ago was a good idea, because it's part of our annual routine now. Some year, I'd love to play in the Mid Am and then stay for the Kircher Cup, but 5 straight days of golf is kind of a tough sell to the wife.

I've never played in one, but from what I've heard, there is a competitive element to it, but it's laid back, and more about having a good time playing courses that a lot of people wouldn't otherwise have access to.

was just looking at the golf days schedule, seems to be only two in the southwest part of the state. Battle creek country club and the moors. they are on mondays, so that works for me. Having played neither of the courses before, if i was to do only one, which course would people suggest? its 80 for BCC and 60 for the moors. they are approximately same distance from me.

Just stumbled onto Arcadia rates for 2020. All of April is $90. Assuming we try to go late April, does anyone know if it’s still a great experience at that time? It’s a bucket list course for me that if I can still get a solid experience for $90 bucks I would love to do.

Its all going to depend on the weather. The course will be fine. but it might be 30 degrees and and 25mph winds. We took our trip there in late may and it was still pretty cold one day. It looks like its $130 through the end of may, i would probably roll with that.

They discount the early season rates for a reason up there. It depends on the year, but northern MI courses often aren’t able to open until mid to late April. That early, right on the lake, there’s a very good chance you’ll be playing in some nasty cold/wind. I’m not sure what their cancellation policy is, but if you have some flexibility and can cancel if the weather sucks, it probably doesn’t hurt to play it by ear, and maybe you’ll luck out and find a nice early spring day.

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